


Routines

by queen_scribbles



Category: Pillars of Eternity
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 11:00:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18233972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queen_scribbles/pseuds/queen_scribbles
Summary: Sometimes the best way to practice a skill is to teach it to someone else. Or a couple someone else's.





	Routines

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RisuAlto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RisuAlto/gifts).



> For the Pillars prompts fill #81: Novice. For this one, I borrowed a couple of RisuAlto's OCs, Gjeorun and Ilaine, who have been wanting to learn how to knit from Charity for a while now, but we had to wait until after the wedding. ;D

 

It was surprisingly easy to return to routine. Charity had been a little worried the whirlwind of wedding planning and novelty of her honeymoon would make it  seem... too mundane. But it was almost a relief to come home, back to her house, her gardens, her cat.  Sparrow was miffed enough at her being gone she ignored Charity(but not Edér, furry little traitor) for three whole days after they got back. Sunshine more than made up for the cat’s reticence, however, spending those three days glued to Charity’s side, tail wagging furiously whenever she so much as looked at him. Weeding took twice as long when she kept stopping to cave to soulful brown ‘ _I missed you’_ eyes and scratch under a doggy chin.

Aside from earning pet forgiveness, the new routine of married life was also surprisingly easy to pick up. It helped, she knew, that they were both early risers. They were almost always up at the same time and ate breakfast together(he usually cooked) before Edér left for work. Now that planning the wedding didn’t dominate every spare moment of her life, Charity got back her favorite(well, second favorite; cuddling Edér was still first) hobby. That sweater for Edér wasn’t going to finish itself. And once she’d refreshed her memory after so long without picking up the needles, she was able to make good on a promise. One that also gave her something else to do between weeding, so two birds, one stone.

-o-o-

The knock on her door betrayed the visitors’ excitement even before Charity opened it and was almost knocked over by a pair of enthusiastic round the waist hugs. 

“Hullo Miss Charity!” the hug-givers chorused.

“Hello, you two,” she laughed, managing to hug one of them as she braced the other against the wall to keep her balance.

“Gjeorun, Ilaine, Hylea’s sake, don’t injure the poor woman before she’s had a chance to teach you anything!” Despite Bethyn’s admonishing tone, there was a smile in her eyes as she shook her head.

“Oh, I don’t mind,” Charity assured her. “Sunshine’s getting big enough, he can do worse to me.”

“Thank you, but they do need to remember their manners,” Bethyn said with a loving-yet-meaningful look at her children. Both stepped half a pace back, clasped their hands behind them, and contritely mumbled, “Sorry, Miss Charity.”

“We’re just excited you’re gonna teach us knittin’,” Ilaine added, lisping around a perilously loose tooth.

“What I can remember of it,” Charity said wryly, winking at the girl and ruffling her brother’s hair. “I’m a bit rusty.”

“And they’re not going to care,” Bethyn assured her for the third time since she’d broached the subject and Charity had agreed. She rested a hand each on the shoulder of both children. “They’re just happy to learn, and learn from you.”

“I’m flattered,” Charity smiled. “Does mid-afternoon work for you to come get them?”

“Oh, more than,” Bethyn nodded. “It might be Meryna or Dannith who gets ‘em, but that’s perfectly agreeable. If you don’t mind havin’ ‘em that long?”

“Not at all. They’re good kids.” Charity winked at Ilaine and Gjeorun. “And that’ll give us plenty of time to practice.”

“Alright, then.” Bethyn kissed each of her children atop the head in turn. “You two behave yourselves and listen to Miss Charity, alright?”

“Yes’m!” Gjeorun was slightly faster and louder than his sister this time, rocking up on the balls of his feet in his impatience. With one last smile and wave, Bethyn departed to take care of her business for the day.

Charity gestured toward the dining room. “Alright, you two, let’s get started.”

Ilaine and Gjeorun eagerly followed her to the table, where she’d set up--aside from her own ongoing project--two pairs of knitting needles, and two skeins of yarn, one cheery yellow and one soft lilac.

“What color’s mine?” Ilaine asked, tucking her hair back behind her ears.

“That’s something to work out with your brother, I think.” Charity scooched their chairs in once they were seated. 

“I think Gjeorun should get yellow ‘cause it matches his hair,” Ilaine said. She picked up the needles and fiddled with them.

Charity looked at Gjeorun. “Is that alright with you?”

He nodded, reaching for the yellow yarn. “Yeah. Purple is ‘Laine’s fav’rite color, anyway. An’ I like yellow.”

“Okay, if we have that settled, let me show you how to get started.” Charity reached over and unwound a fair bit of yarn from both skeins. “Even before you figure out how to hold the needles” --a smile at Ilaine--”you need a slipknot in the end of the yarn to anchor it to the needle.”

“Oh, I know how to do that!” Gjeorun said cheerfully. “I learnt back in the city.” And, sure enough, despite the yarn likely being skinnier than what he learned on, he had slipknots tied for both him and Ilaine in just a few deft  moves.

“Very good,” Charity said, smiling when he beamed at the praise. “And now....” She picked up a spare set of needles and ball of dark red yarn too small to use for anything else. She quickly tied a slipknot of her own and slid it on the needle. “Here’s how you cast on.”

Gjeorun’s nose wrinkled and Ilaine’s ears dipped downward as they concentrated on following her movements. Both of them got it with very little trouble, and Charity showed them how to do a knit stitch for the first row. A few of the stitches were lumpy or loose, but on the whole, they were doing well.

“Now, before we move on,” she began, smiling inwardly at how much she echoed Peycg at her own first knitting lesson, “do you want to just practice today, get the hang of it, or actually start working on something?”

“If we just practice, won’t that waste yarn?” Ilaine asked.

Charity shook her head. “I can just unravel and re-roll it for you to use later.”

“Then I just wanna practice for now,” Ilaine lisped, looking relieved. 

“I wanna make a scarf!” Gjeorun said, clacking the needles together impatiently.

“Good choice,” Charity laughed. “That’s the first thing I made when I was learning. It’s not too difficult, and you get something useful when you’re done.”

He kicked his feet and grinned. “Didja make it for Mayor Teylecg?”

She laughed again at the sheer confidence shining in his eyes. “I did indeed. Hopefully yours will turn out better than that sorry thing.”

“But he still wears it, right?” Ilaine piped up.

“He does,” Charity nodded. “Because he is a very nice man. Alright, Ilaine, if you’re not makin’ something particular, you don’t hafta worry as much about keeping your rows even, but Gjeorun, you need to count the stitches in that first row so you can keep track and make all your rows just as wide.”

He nodded. “Got it.”

The two children set to work, tongues sticking out in concentration, and Charity picked up the sweater to work on, regularly glancing at her pupils to ensure things were going well.

-o-o-

Things went well for the first couple hours, and then Gjeorun started dropping stitches, and Ilaine pulled a couple rows too tight. Both were getting flustered and frustrated, so Charity made an executive decision.

“We need a break,” she declared, setting aside her own project. “It’s time for lunch, anyway.”

Both looked relieved to have an excuse to stop without ‘quitting’. They didn’t dilly dally over lunch, but they didn’t rush, either. After a sufficient break to calm frustrated nerves, Charity showed Gjeorun how to fix dropped stitches, and undid Ilaine’s puckered rows so she could try again.

The next couple hours passed swiftly, and before they knew it, Meryna was knocking on the door to collect her younger siblings. Charity sent them home with the needles and yarn so they could keep practicing if they wanted, and assured them they could come back every couple days for more lessons, provided it was alright with their parents.

-o-o-

This became part of Charity’s routine over the next month; Gjeorun and Ilaine came over every Mecwynsdag and Rytlingsdag for knitting lessons. Both proved to be fast learners, despite a few struggles. (”Only natural,” she promised them, getting Edér’s scarf from the mudroom to show them it hadn’t been easy for her, either.) She taught them how to purl, how to change colors so you could do stripes, how to switch between stitches in the same project(that one had mixed success).

She grinned right along with Gjeorun when he finished his sunny yellow scarf--less lumpy than her first attempt, even--and promptly gave it to his mother. “It’ll looke pretty with your hair, Mom!” She encouraged Ilaine through the doll-sized shawl she decided to make as her first project, which--thanks to copious practice--turned out _very_ well.

And she got more than a little choked up on the day they showed up fpr lessons hiding their hands behind their backs only to reveal thank you presents almost as soon as they walked in the house.

Gjeorun had made her a green and white striped scarf and Ilaine gave her a doll wrapped in a very familiar lilac shawl under dark red hair.

“Thank you so much!” Charity said, kneeling to hug them both with a gift in each hand. “Gjeorun, this is my very favorite shade of green, and Ilaine, she’s such a pretty doll, are you sure you want to give her to me?”

Ilaine smiled bashfully and nodded. “I have other dolls, an’ her hair reminded me of you. ‘M not ready t’ make anything bigger yet.”

“Well, thank you, I’ll take very good care of her,” Charity promised with a smile.

“Look how straight I got the stripes!” Gjeorun piped up. He ducked out of the hug and pushed the scarf closer.

“I saw,” Charity laughed. “Very impressive for your first time.” Only a few of the stripes were noticeably crooked or wider than the rest. “I can’t wait until it’s cold enough for me to use it.” She carefully set both present on the pass-through to the kitchen. “Are you two ready to start?”

“Yes!” they chorused, scrambling for the table.

Charity couldn’t help smiling again as she joined them. She very much liked her new routine.

**Author's Note:**

> (I do think it’s kinda funny the first post-wedding Ederity fic doesn’t have any Edér. Whoops. I’m sure they’ll get back to their fluff in no time ;D)


End file.
